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PDF versionOver 150 theologians call for abolition of death penalty
Sep. 26, 2011
More than 150 Catholic theologians have signed a statement calling on the United States to abolish capital punishment, and asking the church to work "unwaveringly" toward that goal.
The statement, issued this morning on the Catholic Moral Theology blog, comes five days after the controversial Sept. 21 execution in Georgia of Troy Davis. Amnesty International, along with a number of faith and justice groups, had said that “serious doubts” remained over Davis’ guilt in the 1989 murder of a police officer.
Signing their names along with the institution where they teach, overwhelmingly at Catholic colleges and universities, the theologians reference church teachings on capital punishment and say they “deplore and lament the killing of Troy Davis” and “decry the death sentences of the more than 3,200 inmates on death row.”
Tobias Winright, an associate professor in theology at St. Louis University who helped draft the statement, said in a phone interview that the number of theologians interested in adding their name to the list is growing by the minute. The high number, he said, indicates that the movement to abolish the death penalty is backed by professors across the country, of every age and political stripe.
“We’ve had signers from North to South, West to East,” said Winright. “We have first year teachers, and people who have taught for many, many years. That reflects that this is an important issue to a lot of Catholic theologians right now.”
The statement, which Winright said started as an exchange between professors on a listserv over the morality of the killing of Davis, notes that, since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1973, 138 people have been exonerated from death row.
The number of people exonerated, the theologians write, reflects the fact that “execution is … irrevocable and innocent people have likely been victims of it.”
That probability of innocent victims of the death penalty speaks to the case of Davis, who maintained he was not guilty. His case garnered international attention when many of the witnesses who had implicated him in the murder recanted their testimony, and nine others signed affidavits implicating another man, whom Davis said was the actual killer.
Disproportionate among those who have been cleared of crimes worthy of the death penalty, the theologians’ statement says, are people of color, who “are from 3 to 5 times more likely to be executed if their victim was white.”
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Citing the U.S. bishops’ 2005 statement “A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death,” the theologians’ statement says that while church teaching does not outlaw capital punishment, it recognizes that there are now other ways to “protect citizens from threats to the common good.”
The application of the death penalty is “deeply flawed and can be irreversibly wrong, is prone to errors, and is biased by factors such as race, the quality of legal representation, and where the crime was committed,” the statement quotes the bishops’ 2005 document.
Another sign of the importance of the death penalty question to Catholic theologians, Winright said, is that today’s statement has drawn signatures of those who have in the past disagreed on issues of doctrine or liturgy.
“While we may have disagreements on some things, on this issue there seems to be consensus,” said Winright.
While Winright said the theologians hadn’t specifically reached out to bishops to sign today’s statement, he noted they had received one bishop’s signature, Bishop John Michael Botean of the Eparchy of St. George in Canton, Ohio, and would welcome others.
Beyond practical questions of innocence or guilt of those on death row, the theologians say in their statement that the example of Christ, who himself was put to death, points to a “theological stance” that the death penalty is always wrong.
Acknowledging that the “Gospel message of forgiveness and love of enemies presents a difficult challenge” to those who have experienced murder in their families, the theologians write: “The Gospel teaches us how to become fully human: love, not hatred and revenge, liberates us. We need to forgive and love both in fidelity to the Gospel and for our own well-being.”
As an example of such forgiveness, the statement points to the work of Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights, an international group of families who have experienced a murder, yet publicly oppose the death penalty.
[Joshua J. McElwee is an NCR staff writer. His e-mail address is jmcelwee@ncronline.org.]
Editor's note: As of the morning of Sept. 27, 195 people had signed onto the statement.
Deo Gratias Please also see
Deo Gratias
Please also see from our great theologian Friar Boff, the Passion of Christ, Passion of the World, which opens with a meditation on the impermissibility of killing by the state substantiated by the Passion.
Troy Davis received his just
Troy Davis received his just punishment while his victim received justice. I would like to see these phoney Pro-Murderer champions come and protest in front of a Planned Parenthood baby killing machine in the same manner. I doubt that will ever happen.
I believe that you are wrong
I believe that you are wrong in your statements. How can you be so certain about Troy Davis? Are you God? I am pro-life, womb to tomb. I have stood at both anti-abortion vigils and anti-death penalty vigils. It is easy to stand in opposition to abortion; do you have the guts to stand up for others who have no voice - the poor, the homeless, the uninsured, the immigrant, the death-row inmate? Jesus came for sinners, and to save every soul. Educate yourself in Catholic Social Teaching. Although we all may choose one or two issues to which we dedicate our lives, we should be in communion with all of the Church's teachings in the areas of Social Justice ministry. Read the Sermon on the Mount, study the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Know and live your faith!
The death penalty is a
The death penalty is a primitive, ineffective, vindictive, inappropriate and unjust response to crime. It has no place in a civilized state. Those of us outside the US stand aghast at the facility with which otherwise sophisticated US citizens defend the practice.
It is a supreme irony that so many anti-abortionist Christians favour the death penalty, while "progressive" secularists reject the it but favour abortion rights.
JP2's abolitionist stance is wonderfully consistent with the entire body of traditional Catholic teaching on the value of human life. Can anyone truly imagine Jesus approving of the clinical US executions?
The death penalty solves nothing. Killing the murderer does not heal the victim. Revenge may bring temporary respite to feelings of hurt and anger. But forgiveness, hard as it might be, is the path to true healing. Cherishing the virtue of forgiveness is part of our wonderful Christian heritage. Forgiveness always heals the victim, and often leads the criminal to repentance.
The fact that there may be a measure uncertainty about the condemned person's guilt merely compounds the barbarity. It is not the principle reason for opposing the death penalty.
Application of the death
Application of the death penalty against a demonstrated murderer provides 100% assurance against recidivism. Anyone who frees or in any way contributes to the freeing of a murderer or other violent criminal who then kills or maims again is guilty of aiding and abetting the follow-on crime because the one providing the support, no matter how tangential, should have known better. In fact, he should be subject to the same penalty as the criminal he helped. Under these conditions I’m willing to make the death penalty “very rare”. Any takers? Oh, by the way, released murderers should be put back on the street in the upper class neighborhoods of the prominent with their expensive homes and cars.
No-one is suggesting that you
No-one is suggesting that you let murderers free instead of executing them. You keep them in prison instead of executing them. I would have thought that to be obvious. That is what happens in civilised countries.
Is there anything less
Is there anything less relevant than 150 theologians?
150 bishops?
150 bishops?
As an Episcopal priest, I
As an Episcopal priest, I readily applaud this statement and add my voice.
Paulte rejects this nonsense
Paulte rejects this nonsense on the death penalty. The death penalty was affirmed without reservation by Pius XII in 1952 & 1953 which is clearly the modern era. Pius said that the killer forfeits his right to life. Granted he doesn't have to be executed; other factors can come into play. Personally, in the interest of not using excessive force, I would say that anyone guilty of simple murder (especially a guy who kills his wife) should not be executed. Only those who take a life in a particularly egregious manner like a torture murder should face execution.
As far as the Davus execution, I feel the jury is out on that. I certainly don't support executing innocent people but a person convicted of a crime has been convicted beyond a reasonable doubt. How do all these sweet innocents get convicted anyway? Also, It should be noted that Davis was convicted of a crime involving a gun before this conviction. This particular sweet innocent is not all that innocent to begin with.
Paulte always makes sense and
Paulte always makes sense and tells the facts as they are! Never give up speaking the truth, Paulte! You are a light in the dark distorted land of NCR!
I support my theologian
I support my theologian colleagues in calling for an end to this barbaric practice. Even if the sentence to death could (it can't) be infallible, the "eye for an eye..." punishment is primitive and senseless.
None of the "theologians" are
None of the "theologians" are from any of the colleges and universities which appear on the Cardinal Newman Society list of truly authentic Catholic colleges. I bet their positions doctrinal issues are also suspect.
Good Catholics should never
Good Catholics should never vote for a politician who supports the death penalty. That's the Pro-Life position regarding American politics.
Mr. Winwright is in error on
Mr. Winwright is in error on his points and/or his claims have clear challenges which he fails to present.
NOTE Confirmable fact checking upon request. sharpjfa@aol.com
1) Mr. Winwright could not have read the factual record of Troy Davis’ case. Instead, he seems to have depended upon the claims of the anti death penalty campaign, which was dominated by error. There is solid evidence that Davis’ many claims were just “smoke and mirrors”, as detailed, witness by witness, by the federal judge, in the 2010 decision, concluding Davis was not innocent.
2) The Anti Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act DOES NOT and CANNOT create “the legal conditions for executing a man whose guilt was not established beyond reasonable doubt.”. Mr. Winwright, that is a legal impossibility.
3) There are many studies that find that there is no disparity by race of either the victim or defendant in death penalty cases. In addition, white murderers are twice as likely to be executed as are black murderers, with whites being executed more quickly.
4) It is untrue that “Since 1973, 138 persons have been exonerated from death row. . ..”. This well know fraud as been exposed for years. Several reviews, inclusive of one by the NY Times, find that from 25-40 actual innocents have been “identified and released” from death row during that time, or 0.4% of those sent to death row. The evidence supports that innocents are more at risk without the death penalty.
5) For nearly 2000 years the Catholic Church has well known teachings that the death penalty honors respect for human life and dignity and is a just, appropriate and, sometimes, mandatory sanction for the crime of murder. The Church’s recent change is based upon an inaccurate and secular prudential judgement, finding prison security a sufficient “defense of society” that use of the death penalty is all but unnecessary. Both forgiveness and love incorporate justice, inclusive of the death penalty, as detailed by Church teaching and reason.
NOTE: I have sent corrections and commentary to contributors at Catholic Moral Theology and to Mr. Winwright, which they have, thus far, sadly, refused to publish.
I think we need to stick to
I think we need to stick to the spirit, not the word of the law. "La letra mata. El Espiritu vivifica". Aren't Jesus actions clear enough? Remember the woman caught in adultery, deserving to be stoned according to the law? Jesus did not condemn her. Our last Popes, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul, Blessed John Paul II and Benedict XVI insist in the immorality of the death penalty. The farther back we look into church history, the messier it gets, which shows the normal upward evolution of Catholic thought in this matter. What would Jesus do?
Other issues where we can observe the growth and clarification of Christian thought is nuclear weapons and modern war.
The problem with the
The problem with the statement "A Catholic Call To Abolish The Death Penalty" at Catholic Moral Theology is that is in error and/or the claims have clear challenges which they fail to present.
As with:
1) Their statement seems to have depended upon the claims of the anti death penalty campaign, which was dominated by error. There is solid evidence that Davis’ many claims were just “smoke and mirrors”, as detailed, witness by witness, by the federal judge, in the 2010 decision, concluding Davis was not innocent.
2) The Anti Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act DOES NOT and CANNOT create “the legal conditions for executing a man whose guilt was not established beyond reasonable doubt.”. That would be a legal impossibility.
3) There are many studies that find that there is no disparity by race of either the victim or defendant in death penalty cases. In addition, white murderers are twice as likely to be executed as are black murderers, with whites being executed more quickly.
4) It is untrue that “Since 1973, 138 persons have been exonerated from death row. . ..”. This well know fraud as been exposed for years. Several reviews, inclusive of one by the NY Times, find that from 25-40 actual innocents have been “identified and released” from death row during that time, or 0.4% of those sent to death row. The evidence supports that innocents are more at risk without the death penalty.
5) For nearly 2000 years the Catholic Church has well known teachings that the death penalty honors respect for human life and dignity and is a just, appropriate and, sometimes, mandatory sanction for the crime of murder. The Church’s recent change is based upon an inaccurate and secular prudential judgement, finding prison security a sufficient “defense of society” that use of the death penalty is all but unnecessary. Both forgiveness and love incorporate justice, inclusive of the death penalty, as detailed by Church teaching and reason.
NOTE: Any confirmation for fact checking is available upon request.
Why do we kill people in
Why do we kill people in order to teach people that killing people is wrong?
So, the theologians point to
So, the theologians point to a '“theological stance” that the death penalty is always wrong' and that "on this issue there seems to be consensus." I guess that shows the value of consensus given that the Church has not taken this absolutest position. It is disappointing to find that (as of today) over 300 "theologians" have signed on to a document that is so poorly reasoned. If there was a valid argument that could reverse nearly 2000 years of Church teaching on this topic one would expect the best and the brightest to find and explain it. So far that hasn't happened and this letter is no exception.
I have two comments
I have two comments concerning the Great and the Good, our self-annointed moral exemplars. How many of you have ever - even once - reached out to the families of murder victims or can even name ONE murder victim? One can only remember Ms. Prejean's response to the father of the murder victim in the Sarandon-Penn movie...self-absorbed and condescending. Secondly, how can any professional Catholic speak with any moral authority when so many of the the Bishops and Cardinalate (Roger Mahoney comes immediately to mind)spent a career defending, protecting, promoting and befriending the men who rape boys? These were not closely held secrets except from the peasantry. Diocesan and arch-diocesan staffs both lay and clerical, priests and nuns, lawyers and publicists were co-conspirators and yet who told? How many of the high-rankers will ever do the perp-walk? Just a thought.
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